Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-05-19
A Hard Fight with 4 Grizzly.
rTs.n .Fancsm Exar.inrr.l

ISan Fanctun Exausiner. .T
John Cavendish, ofthe DEVILS Falls
Canon, west of Redwood City, in the
Santa Cruz Mountains, is at a down
town hotel.
He wears his right arm in a sling,
and it is about as big rs a big joint Of
stOSe-pipe. Mr.. Cavendish's chin is
marked by a hugh abrasion, a piece of
his right ear is gone, the whole side Of
his face is decidedly torn up, and Mr..
Cavendish generally has n decidedly
cyclonic appearance.
az had a tussle with grizzly last
month" said Cavendish to an ErdHi-
Rer reporter, "and, although | may
look tough now, I'm handsome to what
I was Immediately after the conflict
| own a place near Louis Pegani j, an
Italian raneher on the edge of DEVILS
Falls Canon. We have both been
losing a great deal of stock for some
time. Last year, out of sixty head of
cattle, the bears got seventeen. Pegan-
nj lost two or three colts and cow
Both of us lost some sheep also. |
Judge about n score or thereabOuts
apiece. The canon is fearfully deep
and wild. It's sides are very preeipi-
tous, but at the bottom there are some
small areas of level ground. All this is
| filled with great redwOods and tanbark
oak. This gulch is the great rendeZ-
vous of the bears. They are safe down
there, because we have been afraid to
go in there after them. A bear might
spring up any moment out ofthe under
brush, and when they have their cubs
with them it is no joke. We set poison
on our ranches for these bears, hoping
to catch them when they came ont at
night. have reason to believe we got
several of them in this way, but we
couldn't get them out fast enough. A
little over two weeks ago Tom Murphy,
Ben Stevenson, myself and Peganni
agreed to go down in the canon and
beard the bears in their native lair. We
had good Winchesters, and we killed
four brown bears and grizzly, and
didn't have much trouble about it either
simply got the drop on them and
raked them in. This we did in
two days. The third day I ventured
alone into deep jungle of alder bushes.
opening and shot him, but only in the
| lodged several times, but he finally
/ duu, dS L IuTDtu W NlOuSc
| again, the ugly brute swiped me on the
side of the head with his great paw,
! knocking me out of time in second.-
! He then leaped onto me, socked his
| teeth in my right arm, with the amica-
BILE intention of ripping me to pieces
He did rip, and he tore the coat from
my arm and jerked away mouthful of
flesh. Ofcourse, l yelled with all my
power, and when l heard the bushes
I cracking and heard voices knew some
of the men were coming to help me.
But the bear also heard them, and
! Jumped down into the edge of little
ravine, leading into the main gulch,
among some underbrush, and escaped.
4 II was fearfully used up. fhe bear
had planted his feet on my stomach,
and the life was almost knocked out of
me, bled like a stuck pig, and trail
of blood also marked where the bear
tumbled down! the ravine. The men
We're afraid to venture in after him, for
in his wounded condition he would
fight to the death. 1t was cloudy and
dark in the canon, too, and the boys,
when they looked at me, decided that
they could do very well without meet
ing the bear. - Gaa 3. .a....a. q-.
| "They lugged me up the noun
tain side, and after six hours got
me home. There I have been evel
since until to-day, when got up to the
city for better medical treatment"
Cavendish is accompanied by Tom
Murphy, who was one of the huntsmen.
He varifes all that Cavendish states,
and says, that the wonder to him is that
I Cavendish escaped at all-that he was
not torn to pieces before the animal was
scared away. The bear, he thought,
would weigh six hundred pounds, OF
such a matter. ~"